After leaving Hue behind we headed to the undisputed clothing capital of Vietnam that is Hoi An. We had read a lot about the charm and beauty of this little Vietnamese gem but we may have been a little apprehensive of what was to lie ahead after Hue was not quite as ancient and interesting as the guide books made out.

We took the day time bus that was going to take us approximately 5 hours as part of our open bus ticket and after it arrived late as usual we settled down to witness some more crazy driving by the locals and a wide variety of goods being stacked ten to the dozen on a single moped. We Arrived in one piece thanks mainly to bearable breeze coming in through the windows, enough to keep us relatively comfortable. After the bus stopped we were greeted by the usual party of moped salesman who were ready to prove that there friends guesthouse was your best option and that it was very very cheap.

After ignoring them all we headed to the place we had already picked out from the bible ( the lonely planet guide for those not in the know) and in doing so bumped into a couple from Manchester called Daniel and Niamh. The lot of us arrived to the guesthouse to find a pool, air con in our rooms and even japanese style kimonos to lounge about in if you so wished. So we figured all in all this was a pretty good bet and checked In. The first issue of the day that then needed to be dealt with was getting measured up for a suit, and being in Hoi An I can tell you this is quite a decision as there is probably more tailors than there are any other type of shop in the town itself! Luckily we had a recommendation from someone Daniel had met about a show called Blue and this turned out to be the best choice in my eyes as my suit at around £110 fitted nearly perfectly at first fitting and needed only 2 minor alterations. Also Caroline got a beautiful tailor made dress and work trousers for around £20! And Caroline got a pair of shoes of course, lovely leather sandals for £8.

We got out for some really nice meals in the riverside streets that reminded us so much of the Luang Prabang in Laos and that were teaming with silk shops (that I struggled to get Caroline out of), a variety of Vietnamese and international food restaurants and even a show that sold replica handmade sailing ships, the same one were the top gear guys bought one in the Vietnam special!

Our pick of the restaurants though would have to be a Italian called good morning Vietnam, they have several branches that run down the Coast in Southern Vietnam and all come with their own in-house Italian chef who in my eyes cooked up one of the best Calzones I've had out of Italy itself. We ate here with Daniel, Niamh, Crystal and Niall aswell so it made it a bit more of an occasion.

The following day we decided to have a bit more of a scout around the town and so went to look down by the riverside at the the local market were we found a women carrying around a live duck by the ankles and shopping around for what looked like the other ingredients she was going the cook the unlucky guy in!

We really enjoy Hoi An and definitely want to go back their again, we headed for our night bus next stop Nha Trang.